While he had many legitimate and illegitimate children (legitimate meaning born of his sister-wife, under the Inca system), two sons are historically important. Huayna Capac relied on his sons to support his reign. Due to its size, and the fact that all communication and travel had to take place by foot or by boat, the Inca Empire proved increasingly difficult to administer and govern, with the Inca Emperor having increasingly less influence over local areas. Many parts of the empire retained distinct cultures, which were at best reluctant to become part of the greater imperial project. : 98 While he had to put down a number of rebellions during his reign, by the time of his death, his legitimacy was as unquestioned as was the primacy of Inca power.Įxpansion had caused its own set of problems. On his accession to the throne, Huayna Capac had continued the policy of expansion by conquest, taking Inca armies north into what is today Ecuador. Huayna Capac was the son of the previous ruler, Túpac Inca, and the grandson of Pachacuti, the Emperor who, by conquest, had commenced the dramatic expansion of the Inca Empire from its cultural and traditional base in the area around Cusco. He could trace his lineage back to a "stranger king" named Manco Cápac, the mythical founder of the Inca clan, : 144 who, according to tradition, emerged from a cave in a region called Paqariq Tampu. In 1528, Emperor Huayna Capac ruled the Inca Empire. Some scholars, such as Jared Diamond, believe that while the Spanish conquest was undoubtedly the proximate cause of the collapse of the Inca Empire, it may very well have been past its peak and already in the process of decline. Scholars estimate that the population of the Inca Empire was more than 16,000,000. Under the administrative mechanisms established by the Inca, all parts of the empire answered to, and were ultimately under the direct control of, the Inca Emperor. Because of the diverse cultures and geography, the Inca allowed many areas of the empire to be governed under the control of local leaders, who were watched and monitored by Inca officials. This vast area of land varied greatly in culture and climate. In less than a century, the Inca had expanded their empire from about 400,000 km 2 (150,000 sq mi) in 1448 to 1,800,000 km 2 (690,000 sq mi) in 1528, just before the arrival of the Spanish. Extending southward from the Ancomayo, which is now known as the Patía River, in southern present-day Colombia to the Maule River in what would later be known as Chile, and eastward from the Pacific Ocean to the edge of the Amazonian jungles, it covered some of the most mountainous terrains on Earth. When the Spanish arrived at the borders of the Inca Empire in 1528, it spanned a considerable area and was by far the largest of the four grand pre-Columbian civilizations. The conquest of the Inca Empire (called "Tahuantinsuyu" or "Tawantinsuyu" in Quechua, meaning "Realm of the Four Parts"), led to spin-off campaigns into present-day Chile and Colombia, as well as expeditions to the Amazon Basin and surrounding rainforest. It was the first step in a long campaign that took decades of fighting but ended in Spanish victory in 1572 and colonization of the region as the Viceroyalty of Peru. After years of preliminary exploration and military skirmishes, 168 Spanish soldiers under conquistador Francisco Pizarro, along with his brothers and their indigenous allies, captured the Sapa Inca Atahualpa in the 1532 Battle of Cajamarca. The Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire, also known as the Conquest of Peru, was one of the most important campaigns in the Spanish colonization of the Americas. Banda Oriental and Rio Grande do Sul (1762–63).Iberian Peninsula and South America (1762–63).
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